St Thomas Aquinas is one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time. His teachings are highly revered by the Catholic Church in particular.

He is famous for his 5 Ways of proving God's existence, including 3 cosmological arguments, a 'moral argument' and an early but powerful form of design argument, the 'Governance Argument'.

He is also famous for advocating natural moral law as an ethical system, which was founded on primary precepts of reason, known almost instinctively and applied rationally to situations.

He said "hence it is plain that natural bodies achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God"

My interpretation of this was 'everything gets where it has to go, not randomly, but because of the way it was made. If you don't understand purpose you can't have a goal, unless someone else shows you the way; like a guiding hand, who knows your target. Meaning, some things only have purpose because they have been directed on how to develop or live life. They have been directed by God.'

the most curious thing about St. Thomas Aquinas is that altohugh he is of the catholic faith and that he refers to "god" in the cosmological argument alot, he isnt neccesarily saying it must be god, remeber that whilst the cosmological argument is evidence to help prove the existence of god in some way, the FACT THAT IT IS only an argument and not a PROOF, leaves a lot of are to intepretate St.Thomas Aquinas's mind state given the era he lived in. having been born in the arly 12th century (1225-1274) gives us some idea of the "influencual background" he was brought up in, a major part being the catholic faith and the fact that he was a priest in the roman catholic church. he was also a highly sought after and influencal philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism. he was also frequently reffered to as Doctor angelicus (the holy/faithful doctor) and the doctor communis, this most probably happened due to the fact that he was one of the 33 doctors of the church at the time.

however despite all his evidence and upbringing in the belief of god and following the catholic ways, his works do not "push" the catholic faith into existence, they are more like coal into a fire, they slowly burn and provide fuel, gently and carefully without incinerating everything else in its path to achieve its goals, considering Aquinas's "gentel" approach and demanour his writings give us to the catholic faith it seems no wonder then that the chrurch saw him as possible the most influencial and valuable member thye had received in millenia.